Nuclear safety, environment, and health:research at IRSN
IRSN FACT SHEETS

Research at IRSN:
budgetary resources,
human resources, andproduction
39.1% of the budget
allocated to research

450 full-time equivalents
devoted to research and102 PhD students and postdoctoral students

25 theses produced
271 scientific publications
presented at congresses

269 publications listed inscientific journals indexed tothe JCR (Journal Citation
Reports - Thomson Reuters)(2021 data)

November 2022

www.irsn.fr

As a public expert in the assessment of nuclear and radiation risks, IRSN contributes, through its research and expertise,to the development and implementation of public policies on prevention and protection against ionizing radiation risks
in the energy, environment, and health sectors. As such, the Institute relies on research programs directed towards theproduction of data and tools in support of public service missions, in particular in the field of nuclear safety, as well as
on more fundamental research programs aimed at advancing knowledge, in particular as regards the effects of ionizing
radiation on health and the environment. A particular feature of IRSN is the variety of sectors in which it operates and thewide spectrum of scientific disciplines it covers: nuclear science, engineering science, geoscience, environmental
science, and life science, health and medical science... As such, IRSN has a rather unique role as an integrator of
multidisciplinary knowledge.

Resources and organization
Almost 40% of the budget devoted to research and an ambitious doctoral training program
IRSN spends almost 40% (around €100 million) of its total annual budget on research.
Research involves over 450 full-time equivalents, including around 150 permanent researchers.
IRSN’s scientific activity also benefits from an ambitious training program for and through research. This represents
around a hundred PhD students and post-doctoral students. It also has the fundamental task of disseminating theknowledge and skills acquired within the Institute’s laboratories.

Three research units covering safety, the environment, and health
The safety research unit covers topics such as the behavior of nuclear fuel, neutronics and criticality, thermo-hydraulics,
nuclear core meltdown accidents, aging of materials and structures, and the human and social aspects of safety andradiation protection;
The environmental research unit works on, for example, the transfer of radioactivity to the environment and the effects ofionizing radiation on ecosystems, the assessment of natural hazards, and the geological storage of nuclear waste;
The health research unit focuses on the effects of low doses of ionizing radiation on health, prevention of side effects ofradiotherapy, the treatment of acute effects of radiation, and the assessment or reconstruction of radiation dose.

Experimental and digital modeling platforms essential for producing and leveraging knowledge
To conduct its research, IRSN relies on experimental facilities and analytical instruments organized into aroundtwenty scientific platforms. The Institute also develops digital modeling platforms that enable the complexityof the phenomena involved to be simulated and its prediction capabilities strengthened. Unique for some, theseplatforms support research activities and, at the same time, leverage the knowledge produced. They allow
IRSN both to develop numerous partnerships and to have a great deal of independence in the way it conducts
its work. As an important component of the Institute’s scientific heritage, platforms are also an essentialinterface between nuclear research and expertise.
The research platforms devoted to safety are grouped on two sites: Cadarache (south-east of France), forthose devoted to studying accidents and the behavior of materials, and Saclay (Paris metropolitan area), forthose devoted to studying the containment and air dispersion of pollutants.

Contact
Emmanuelle Mur
Tel. +33(0)1 58 35 96 71
Registered office31, av. de la Division Leclerc
92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses

Those devoted to research in the field of health and the environment are divided between the Cadarache site, where workon transfers to the environment and the effects of radiation on ecosystems is hosted, as well as a platform allocated toneutron metrology, and the Fontenay-aux-Roses site (Paris metropolitan area), which hosts teams and platforms involvedin the fields of health and geosciences. Research into geological disposal also relies on the underground researchlaboratory in Tournemire (southern France). The Orsay and Le Vésinet sites host metrology developments. Finally, a teamof environmental researchers is located in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (north-west of France), near the Orano plant in La Hague.

IRSN is a French Stateowned industrial andcommercial establishment(EPIC) the missions, status,and operation of which are
determined by Articles L59245 to L592-49 and R592-39
to R592-61 of the French
Environment Code. IRSN isunder the joint supervision ofthe French Minister for theEnvironment, the French theMinister of Defense, and theFrench Ministers of Energy,
Research, and Health.
As a public expert, IRSN
advances scientificknowledge to manage all
nuclear and radiation risks.
Through its research,
methods, and interactions
with all stakeholders, IRSN
assesses these risks andtheir consequences
independently. It thus
contributes to theirprevention, detection, andthe limitation of their
possible effects, in order toprotect the population andthe environment.

Research serving strategic objectives, built on partnerships and backed byexternal bodies
A scientific strategy based on identifying priority issues
IRSN’s broad scope requires a major effort in deciding on the direction of research programs. In 2015, it adopted ascientific strategy based on 18 priority scientific questions. These are broken down, for each of the major themes, intoresearch roadmaps. The questions considered cover, for example, issues related to the aging of materials and facilities,
the cooling of corium resulting from a core meltdown, the effects of exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation on theliving environment, at different scales, and the side effects of their use for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Deployment based on a multi-level partnership policy
IRSN’s scientific partnership policy is an essential lever for improving the effectiveness of its research and positioning
the Institute in higher education and research circles. It allows IRSN to benefit from additional national funding – via
calls for projects set up by the French National Agency for Research (ANR), French Agency for Food, Environmental andOccupational Health & Safety (Anses), the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), etc. – as well as European andinternational funding.
The partnership policy involves cooperation with three types of stakeholder:academia: in recent years, IRSN has strengthened its ties with academia by refocusing its partnership strategy on a
privileged relationship with the CNRS, on the one hand, and with Paris-Saclay and Aix-Marseille universities, on theother. These partnerships represent a very significant share of IRSN’s scientific production: nearly 40% of the Institute’s
research publications are co-authored by researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
and almost half of its PhD students are enrolled in Paris-Saclay University or Aix-Marseille University (AMU) doctoral
schools. Through its partnership with the CNRS, IRSN has privileged access to the most advanced fundamental
knowledge in all the disciplines it covers. Its academic partnerships are based on a regional rationale. The objective isto establish privileged relationships with the major universities in the regions in which the Institute’s teams are located:
Paris-Saclay University for Fontenay-aux-Roses, Saclay, and Orsay research teams and Aix-Marseille University for
Cadarache research teams. More targeted partnerships, with the Institut Gustave Roussy or the French National
Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) in the field of health, or with the French National Institute forIndustrial Environment and Risks (Ineris) in the field of technological risk management, for example, complete thissystem;
nuclear power producers and stakeholders: the multi-year framework cooperation agreements between IRSN andmanufacturers, such as EDF, Framatome, Orano, and the CEA enable the Institute to conduct research programs asclose as possible to operational realities and technological developments. They not only provide access to nuclear
facilities and the materials used in them, but also provide a valuable insight into the research carried out by the nuclearindustry. Finally, they contribute to the creation of a knowledge base shared by all the technical stakeholders in thesector;
its counterparts in Europe and abroad: the Institute is strongly involved in European and international partnershipresearch programs. It is an important contributor to the research programs financed by the European Commission, inparticular under the Euratom program, and contributes to the development of the strategic agendas for European
research platforms. It also participates in research projects conducted under the auspices of the OECD Nuclear Energy
Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). IRSN also maintains bilateral relationships coveringresearch with its counterparts, including the German technical safety organization GRS, the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE), the U.S. Nuclear Safety Authority (NRC), the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) of Japan, and the Japan Atomic
Energy Research Institute (JAERI).

External bodies to ensure scientific relevance and excellence in programming and implementation

Contact
jean-christophe.niel@irsn.fr
Tel. +33 (0)1 58 35 84 89
Registered office31, av. de la Division Leclerc
92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses

To guide the development and implementation of its scientific strategy and the deployment of its partnership policy withregard to its more general objectives, IRSN has set up two committees placed with its Board of Directors or its generalmanagement:
the Scientific Council, which plays an advisory and support role in steering its scientific activities;
the Research Steering Committee, which includes representatives of the Institute’s various stakeholders and which
contributes to ensuring that the research conducted meets the needs of the public authorities and the expectations ofsociety at large.
As a research organization, IRSN is also subject to the assessments of the High Council for Evaluation of Research andHigher Education (Hcéres). As far as its research units are concerned, assessments are carried out by an external
evaluation committee set up according to procedures validated by Hcéres.